Dozens killed in Pakistan bomb blast

Quetta, Pakistan

A BOMB targeting Shiite Hazaras in a busy market in Pakistan's insurgency-hit south-west killed at least 79 people, including women and children, and wounded 180 others.

The bomb ripped through a packed bazaar in Hazara town, an area dominated by Shiites on the outskirts of Quetta - capital of oil and gas-rich Baluchistan province - on Saturday night.

''We have recovered more dead bodies from the debris of a collapsed building. The death toll has now risen to 79,'' senior Quetta police official Wazir Khan Nasir said on Sunday.

Quetta city police chief Zubair Mehmood said a water tanker, packed with 800 kilograms of explosives, was placed near a pillar of a two-storey building, which collapsed. ''We fear people are trapped inside. I see very little chance of their survival,'' he said.

Mr Nasir said the bombing ''was a sectarian attack, the Shiite community was the target''.

The banned Sunni Muslim extremist group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi claimed responsibility for the attack.